Canteen

Very touristy because of location. We were there at xmas and it was so busy and noisy.
Food was great for being in such a high turnover venue. The staff deserve battle pay for the chaos and crowds that they endure.

This place does the best scones with beautiful jam and clotted cream at a very reasonable price of £5!

I visited Canteen’s Royal Festival Hall location on Sunday the 24 May 2015 in a group of eight people. I have previously eaten at this location and struggled to get a big group into the restaurant without a reservation, but it was easy to make one online a few days in advance. The food at Canteen is ideal for groups of all ages as they offer children’s portions of any dish at half price and the selection consists of traditional British fare with rotating daily and monthly specials. The menu features homemade pies, fish and chips, macaroni and cheese and all day brunch dishes– they boast fresh ingredients and all of our dishes were vibrant, immaculately arranged on the plate and good portion sizes. The homemade pies were the envy of all diners in the group, as these came out with a nice flaky crust, generous filling, hand cut fries, a small jug of gravy and lightly sautéed seasonal greens. The macaroni and cheese offered a mature spin on the classic, delivering a creamy, rich cheese sauce and decorated with an arrangement of bacon strips balanced on top. The fish and chips represented a nice attempt at the quintessential dish and were lightly battered with a crispy coating, accompanied with hand cut fries. My hot trout salad was a solid option for a light lunch with flakes of perfectly smoked fish on a bed of lightly dressed apple, fennel and salad leaves.
The food at Canteen definitely delivers, but we had several issues with the speed and care of service and the facilities in the restaurant itself– the ladies toilets were backed up and a complete mess when we first arrived. They were then closed, leaving women queuing for the handicap stall, which also quickly became a mess because the hand dryer was out of order and there were discarded tissues and hand towels piling up. In addition to this, it took the waiting staff much too long to clear our dishes when we were finished our meal. When our plates were eventually collected, they were merely put aside on an empty table and some remained there for the duration of our visit. However, we did arrange for some Birthday cupcakes to be brought over the table and management happily obliged with this request.
As Canteen’s food is equivalent to a relatively high end gastropub in terms of its presentation, portion size, assembly and pricing, I would expect more attentive service and cleaner facilities generally, however this is a general comment that likely applies to all restaurants along the Southbank because of the footfall in this area– in particular, staff always appear to be overladen, distracted and frazzled in these tourist hotspots.
I would recommend Canteen as a good spot for fresh, hearty British food if you are visiting the Southbank as they do offer good value in comparison to other generic food franchises in the area, but otherwise, it might be advisable to try one of their alternative locations for a more intimate and enjoyable atmosphere.

Sunday roast with a giant Yorkshire pud, need I say more. When this delight was brought to the table, I couldn’t help but smile — beef, gravy, baby carrots, roast potatoes, greens and the epic Yorkshire pudding. This was certainly a tasty Sunday roast.
My friend and I were fortunate to have some beautiful sunshine too, so we sat outside — al fresco Sunday roast, what could be more perfect?!
Really friendly staff and great service — always a bonus. I want to go back and try their fish cakes (in fact everything on the menu sounded delicious).

I would describe this restaurant as fairly average. I ordered bangers and mash with an onion gravy. Although the gravy had onions in it, it was more a tomato sauce than a meaty gravy. I have never had anything quite like it! Despite this slight disappointment as it was not quite what expected to receive, the service was very attentive, despite the food taking a while to arrive. They also did not encourage us to leave even though we spent a long time continuing to chat after we paid the bill.

A convenient location, and a bit different to the nearby chains, but be sure to choose carefully.
Ate here on a Wednesday night as a medium-​sized group (9) for a friend’s leaving do. Service was pretty slow: almost 90 minutes for mains.
The devilled kidneys had the wrong proportions. Very meagre slice of toast (which disintegrates into mush in the sauce) with four kidneys. The mushrooms with duck egg looked far better.
The chicken and mash was fine but bland. The braised red cabbage was a bit sweet, with no vinegar to cut through. Had to load it all with pepper and salt to have much flavour. My friend who had the salmon salad initially turned hers away because there was so little salmon to be seen and it was described by the waitress as salad with avocado. My friend only ate half of it, as she also didn’t find it very flavourful, despite it having a chilli dressing.

I’ve eaten here several times — and have enjoyed every meal. As a tourist seeking some classic british fare — this place did the trick.
Things I recommend highly:
— Salmon on Crumpet
— The meat pie of the day
— Any of the breakfast dishes
— a «Hot» ginger beer — make sure to tip it before pouring, the hottness seems to sink to the bottom.

I used to like Canteen. It’s been a safe choice for decent food for a long time. I assume its targeted to the West London group of people, John Lewis and Waitrose shoppers.
The food has been consistently decent, albeit with a lightly pinched price tag. I’ve experienced a few other branches around and this one wasn’t up to the expected standard.
It was packed during Saturday lunchtime, but we managed to get a booth for two within a few minutes. Sat down, got us the wine and things became easier onwards.
Effectively we ordered food and we begun to wait. 20 minutes later and the waiter informs us there’s a small delay as the kitchen is extremely busy. Another glass of wine down, we’re both mellower and we’re still waiting. We’re now 45 minutes post-​order. Surprise surprise, food arriving.
Sorry Canteen, you failed me. My sausages and mash were boring. I was bored halfway but I had to eat cause the alcohol made me hungry. It was sad. I pulled a rather sad face as I finished up. I noticed the plate was hot — could it be that Canteen, a purveyor of fresh food, all home-​made has actually microwaved my food? I couldn’t really tell but it didn’t taste as fresh as I remember it being at the Canary Wharf branch. The sausages were tough, not seasoned and generally tasteless. Like I’ve bought Richmond sausages from the supermarket. The mash tasted like it had been made by potatoes rather than that sachet my local tescos sells.
I’ve had some of my friends chicken. It’s chicken. It was OK. No seasoning and really light on the flavour. Nothing spectacular.
I don’t get the fuss about it anymore. The crowd that goes there likes it, obviously as every branch is packed daily. But I’m over Canteen and I’m not sure whether I’ll ever return.

I have to say, the staff here were brilliant. I sat outside with my friend just having (scrummy!) coffee, and even though lots of people arrived for lunch and it was a beautiful day, they didn’t hurry us up or make us feel that we had to order food at all. In fact, we were so engrossed that it took us longer than it should for us to realise that we should probably give our table up. But at no point did they even hint at it.
Oh, and they serve skimmed milk!
Thanks Canteen — very very classy of you.

I had the steak and kidney pie and a bottle of St. Austell Clouded yellow. Both really hit the spot. And on a Friday night before heading off to a show I was pleased with the quick service.

I came to this location of a client meeting. The reason I give it 5 stars is that they let us sit here for 2 hours while we only had coffee which is a rarity for London establishments.
I have eaten the food at the Spitalfields location, so anyone reading my review. the food is good. It’s mostly breakfast food which isn’t to my personal taste, but it’s good.

This is somewhere between 3 and 4 stars depending on the visit, so I’m going to give Canteen the benefit of the doubt, for now at least.
Canteen has a cool, if uninspired atmosphere, and it’s usually pretty buzzy. As many of the reviews have picked up, the service could definitely do with improving — I’m not sure if it’s bad training or understaffing, but it’s definitely not a flowing service.
Daily roasts often make me happy, and Canteen’s don’t disappoint. The roast duck was delicious and all the trimmings were great. Definitely 4 star material. The next time I went for Sausage and Mash, which was seriously below that par: dull, small, low-​quality sausages and uninspired mash and gravy.
The place rescues it’s hit and miss food with a great drinks menu and bar service. A full range of Meantime beers alway make everything and everyone look Four Star.

Whenever I get to a large station like Waterloo I always exit at the wrong end. This is part of a chain of restaurants and is very close to the London Eye and the Royal Festival Hall. It is a fun place for families, and business meetings with very modern décor. It is great for families with a large menu. I had the fish n chips and a brownie sundae for dessert. The fish n chips was well done, and the brownie sundae was excellent. My friends had the traditional English barbecue that they seemed to enjoy. This is a fun place to meet. I would not recommend it for foodie’s, but is very modern, and clean – reminds me of Wagamama décor.

Awful experience last night with a friend. Service was an absolute nightmare. Took 10 minutes to get a food menu (which acts as your placemat i.e. wagamama style). Never got a drinks menu. Then took 10 minutes to serve a glass of lemonade and a bottle of diet coke with the lid taken off.
Food arrived just after our drinks, rather speedy. However despite telling them who had what they gave each of us the wrong meal.
To top it off the sausage and mash was not great, 2 small supermarket sausages with a frugal amount of mash and watery gravy. At least my friend’s vegetable stew looked and was nice.
Quite simply avoid.

Like most of my relationships, I didn’t come to Canteen with high expectations. Unlike most of my relationships, I left completely impressed! While Canteen isn’t quite ‘the one’ for me, it certainly is, ahem, worth another visit… and often.
My servers were anything but aloof and by the end of my 3-​hour coffee-​turned-​work-​station-​turned-​lunch meeting, I knew most of them by name. The venue itself is nice and airy with plenty of window seating, communal tables, 2-​tops and even a rather comfortable bar. Plus there’s free wifi. I would highly recommend this as a central meeting point — my tablemate was making a skype call to Singapore and apparently the connection was a-​ok for that!
The one star off is for the prices which I do feel are a tad high. An 8oz black coffee cost me £2.25 and lunch specials hovered around the £14 mark, some of which did not include any sides at all. (I’m lookin’ at you whole grilled Plaice!) However for a coffee and a meeting, Canteen is a great spot and will certainly be my business friend-​with-​benefits whenever I’m in the neighbourhood.

Really enjoyed this — classic British cooking, simple and well done, and without a huge amount of fuss.
The restaurant itself was very busy when we turned up and we ended up taking a table outside, but this might not be so doable in the winter months!
A little on the pricey side, but not extortionate and a lot better than some of the other options nearby. Desserts were particularly good.

My experience of Canteen at this location has been mixed. The first time I went I was thoroughly impressed, although I felt the portions were a bit small, and my later experiences were mostly just OK.
I have tried the daily roasts and the pies. The roasts were good, nothing was over-​cooked and dry, although at times it was a bit plain. The pie was not very memorable. I brought visitors here often or told them about it for British cuisine. One friend, who is a foodie, went to the Baker Street location and she enjoyed it so much that she went there repeatedly during her trip.
My favorite item from Canteen, although I don’t know if they still have it, is the chocolate beet cake. Its taste is very unique, and I enjoyed it very much.

Canteen gets one star from me solely for stocking a really good hot ginger beer.
But the rest was an absolute crapshoot.
First, they sat us in a table that only had seats on one side, so we sat next to each other, facing into the restaurant.
Our Welsh rarebit starter was not horrific, but it did not leave us with much sense of anticipation of what was to come. When it eventually did come that is.
The place was hardly full… maybe 5 – 6 tables. And they had about the same number of wait-​staff working. Well, they were THERE, but seemed more interested in chatting to each other than actually, you know, waiting tables.
When my Shepherd’s Pie arrived, it looked pretty good, served in a little metal skillet. So I picked up my fork and started digging into the potato crust to get down to the meaty goodness. First forkload was all potato so I dived back in again, a bit deeper this time. Nada. Again — and I am practically up to my elbows deep in potato this time, and I hit the bottom of the skillet and get some trace of something proteinish, accompanied by a pea.
After a little further excavation work, I managed to clear a little bit of the plate to get a look at the profile — only to find two inches of potato piled on top of less than half an inch of meat mixed with peas. The meat layer was literally not even deep enough to cover the peas.
My partner’s chicken pie was pretty ordinary as well. Same issue. The chicken seemed to be out for the day.
Having raised the lack of meat in my pie (which was really a lot more of a side serve of mashed potato, served as a main meal) she offered to have them «cook me another one maybe, but it might take some time». Her attitude definitely suggested that it might come with a little «extra seasoning» so I opted to decline.
She ran to every other waitress and the service manager in the place to complain about my complaining («can you believe he expected some lamb in the Shepherd’s Pie?!? OMG») and then they all refused to come to our table or give any eye contact until I practically had to physically stop someone to get our check.
15 minutes later once they finally took my card and charged the check, this miserable experience was finally over with.
I didn’t walk into this place expecting fine dining, but this joint couldn’t even get the basics right.
Bad food. Bad attitude. Bad service. Therefore… bad review.

From the outside, this looks like a no-​frills cafeteria style restaurant. However, the prices are a bit shocking, and more suited to a proper restaurant.
There is a good selection of dishes on the menu, as well as a daily rotating selection. But with a fish and chips at £12+, and the quality of the food just so-​so, this is rather expensive and you’re much better off just going to the Pizza Express or the Chez Gerard down the road. If you have more to spend, try to Ping Pong just round the corner instead.

Canteen is part of a London based chain of restaurants. As with the restaurant at Spitalfields this restaurant has an attractive, clean, simple, and modern décor and serves traditional British food. Its name is a literal representation of the food served here so think British traditional in terms of pie and chips rather than beef wellington.
I went with my sister and mother. Before we ate we had a drink at the bar. I had a Seasonal G & T (the gin is infused with rhubarb) which was lovely. To eat I had chicken and chips which whilst well done, was unremarkable. Which was disappointing as the place suggests more, even from such a simple dish.
The service was really good, the Maitre d’ was remarkably pleasant and efficient.
A good concept, and well-​designed place, although the dish I chose was a little disappointing.